Biography

Jens P. Dreier

Jens Dreier is professor at the Center for Stroke Research Berlin where he leads the research group Translation in Stroke Research (TSR) (www.schlaganfallcentrum.de/index.php?id=221). We investigate whether observations in the lab may have relevance for the clinic or whether diagnostic applications can be translated from bench to bedside. For this purpose, my group is concerned with both experimental work in animals and human and rodent brain slices, and with translational clinical studies. Our focus is on delayed cerebral ischemia after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) because it represents a model disease for hypoxic-ischemic injury. Our translational clinical studies are embedded in the Co-Operative Studies on Brain Injury Depolarizations (COSBID) (www.cosbid.org).

Biography

Iben Lundgaard

Iben Lundgaard got her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Cambridge in 2012. She did her postdoctoral work at the University of Rochester studying the glia-lymphatic (glymphatic) system, which is a perivascular system for waste removal in the brain. She also studied metabolism in neurons and astrocytes using near-infrared 2-deoxyglucose (2DG-IR) imaging. I 2017 Dr. Lundgaard received a Wallenberg Fellowship and started her own group at Lund University in Sweden, focusing on the glymphatic system.

Biography

Hideo Tsukada

Dr. Hideo Tsukada received Ph.D. from Shizuoka College of Pharmacy, Japan. He was visiting researcher in Uppsala University PET Center, directed by Professor Bengt Langstrom, from 1990 to 91. At present, he is the senior manager of PET Center, Central Research Laboratory, Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan, and conducting PET researches in preclinical to clinical stages. He has published more than 250 papers, being awarded by the Society for Nuclear Medicine (2009), and Japan Molecular Imaging Award (2010). He is serving as the visiting professor in Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, and University of Shizuoka, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Biography

Christine DeLorenzo

As a biomedical engineer with experience in clinical/translational studies, my goal is to use brain imaging to help improve our understanding, diagnosis and treatment of depression and other mental illnesses. During my postdoctoral fellowship, I became interested in the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5), which has been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression in preclinical and clinical studies. With funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), we examined the accuracy of mGluR5 quantification using a newly developed PET tracer, [11C]ABP688. As part of this study, we found evidence that [11C]ABP688 binding may exhibit a diurnal rhythm. This has now been demonstrated in rodent studies. Currently, as the Director of the Center for Understanding Biology using Imaging Technology (CUBIT) in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University, I utilize Stony Brook’s simultaneous PET/MRI to continue to probe mGluR5. In particular, I am interested in uncovering the shared role of mGluR5 in circadian dysfunction and depression. In this way, PET can be used as a tool to examine the underlying biology of depression, which could lead to personalized interventions.

Biography

Jean-Claude Baron

Jean-Claude Baron, MD (Paris), ScD (Cambridge), FMedSci (UK), trained in Clinical Neurology at the Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris; in functional brain imaging at Harvard University, Boston, USA; and in Medical Physics at the Atomic Energy Commission, Orsay, France. In 1986 he was appointed Director of Research at INSERM; in 1988 Director of INSERM Unit 320 and Scientific Director of the CYCERON Neuroscience Centre at Caen University, France; and in 2000 Professor of Stroke Medicine and Neurology consultant at Cambridge University and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, UK. In late 2010, he returned to Paris as Director of Research and Deputy-Director of the Inserm/Paris Descartes University Research Centre for Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and neurology consultant at Sainte-Anne Hospital – while still managing his group at Cambridge until early 2014. Professor Baron is a pioneer in the applications of positron emission tomography (PET) in cerebrovascular diseases, and has used this technique, along with other imaging methods including CT, MR and SPECT, to study the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke and post-stroke recovery. His main contributions include the demonstration of the existence of the ischemic penumbra in man, in some patients up to 18hrs post-onset, and of the key role of hemodynamic compromise in transient ischemic attacks/minor strokes related to carotid disease, both of which have influenced routine clinical care. He discovered, and coined, crossed cerebellar diaschisis and thalamo-cortical diaschisis, and in doing so formally documented the existence of diaschisis. He also documented the dynamics of cortical activation patterns as predictors of motor recovery after subcortical stroke. Recently he has focused on i) normobaric hyperoxia as an approach to protect the penumbra until recanalization is achieved; ii) post-reperfusion selective neuronal loss, both in animal stroke models and patients; iii) early neurological deterioration occurring within 24hrs of intravenous thrombolysis; iv) the predictors of early recanalization following intravenous thrombolysis; v) PET and MR imaging in cerebral amyloid angiopathy; and vi) the first-ever application of functional ultrasdound imaging in rodent stroke models. Apart from cerebrovascular diseases, he has also worked extensively on neurodegenerative disorders, notably regarding the pathophysiology of cortical dysfunction and mechanisms of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In 2005 he was the first awardee of the European Stroke Conference Johannes Wepfer award, and in 2014 won the French Academy of Sciences Mémain-Pelletier award for Biomedical Sciences. He has published around 400 peer-reviewed articles that have been cited over 28,000 times to date (Web of Science h-index: 89).

Biography

Takuya Toyonaga

Takuya Toyonaga received his M.D. from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2012 and received his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2017. Since 2017, Dr. Toyonaga joined Biomedical Engineering and Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University. He is an associate research scientist at Yale PET Center.
His research focus at Yale PET Center is on the evaluation and application of in vivo synaptic density imaging in human beings and laboratory animals.
Dr. Toyonaga was given the International Academic Exchange Awards from Hokkaido University and Ito Foundation in 2016. He was awarded 2016-18 Wagner-Torizuka Fellowship from Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Biography

Kazuto Masamoto

Kazuto Masamoto PhD. is professor of the Center for Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Informatics and Engineering at the University of Electro-Communications, visiting professor at Keio University School of Medicine, and visiting collaborative researcher of the Department of Functional Brain Imaging Research at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), Chiba, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Keio University (Prof. Kazuo Tanishita) and worked at University of Pittsburgh (Prof. Seong-Gi Kim) and NIRS (Prof. Iwao Kanno). His major research interests include structural and functional plasticity of the neurovascular unit (NVU), specifically focusing on adaptive changes in brain microcirculation and neurovascular coupling regulations using chronic animal models of cerebral ischemia/hypoxia. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers. He received the Melvin H. Knisely Award from ISOTT in 2008, and has been Editorial Board of JCBFM since 2011 and has served as the co-Chairs of Program Committee for the Brain/BrainPET 2019.

Biography

Mohamad El Amki

Mohamad El Amki is a researcher at the Neurology Department at the University Hospital of Zürich and the University of Zürich. His current research focuses on investigating how the vessels in the brain react after stroke and how tissue reperfusion could be improved. In addition to his work on brain blood flow and cerebrovascular changes, he also uses motor rehabilitation strategies to elucidate how neuronal circuits compensate after stroke.

Dr. Amki received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Pathophysiology from the Lebanese University of Beirut and the Saint Joseph University in 2008. From Lebanon, he moved to work in Paris at the Sorbonne Paris Descartes University, where he completed his Masters in Pharmacology in 2009 and received his Doctoral degree in 2013. Before moving to Switzerland, he completed his postdoctoral training in the Normandy at the University of Rouen in 2015 where he investigated the effect of vasospasm in SAH stroke. Dr. Amki has published numerous papers on a variety of topics related to ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.

Biography

Tracy Farr

I have long been interested in the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke and the identification of neuroimaging biomarkers. Having recently established my own laboratory at the University of Nottingham, I am currently focused on the detection of re-organization in the brain in response to vascular risk factors. Within this context, I use structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to identify pre-symptomatic changes in the brain under conditions of hypoperfusion. I have an active interest in developing and refining preclinical models of cerebrovascular disease and improving translation.

Biography

Rick Dijkhuizen

Rick Dijkhuizen is professor of Experimental and Translational Neuroimaging, and head of the Biomedical MR Imaging and Spectroscopy group, part of the Center for Image Sciences, at the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands). His research focuses on multiparametric imaging of brain structure and function in health and disease, with particular emphasis on i) development of tools for improved diagnosis of brain pathophysiology, ii) characterization of neural network (re)organization, and iii) monitoring of neuroprotective and -restorative therapies. He has been particularly involved in preclinical MRI studies to get improved insights in stroke pathophysiology and recovery.

Rick Dijkhuizen collaborates with various national and international institutions on topics such as stroke recovery, brain repair and functional imaging. He is Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neurology/Stroke and the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

Biography

Lisa Herzog

In the last few years, deep learning methods revolutionized the analysis of imaging data. As a PhD candidate at the University Zurich and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, I focus on the development and application of deep learning methods to analyse Magnetic Resonance Images of ischemic stroke patients and therefore to individualize stroke treatment.

SY02:

A Window into the Brain: Innovative Approaches for Estimating Brain Metabolism in Animals and Humans (organized by Stephane Marinesco and Anne-Karine Bouzier-Sore)

Seeing is believing: visualizing brain glucose utilization with deoxyglucose: from in vitro to in vivo

Biography

Luc Pellerin

Born in Trois-Rivières, Canada. After obtaining a BSc degree (1985) in biochemistry at Université Laval in Quebec city, he completed a PhD degree (1991) with a thesis in the laboratory of Leonhard S. Wolfe at the Montreal Neurological Institute on signal transduction in the central nervous system. Then, he performed postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Pierre J. Magistretti on neuron-glia metabolic interactions at the Department of Physiology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Since 2008, he is associate professor and group leader of the laboratory of neuroenergetics in the same Department.

Biography

L. Felipe Barros

L. Felipe Barros, a graduate from Instituto Nacional, qualified as a Medical Doctor at the University of Chile in 1988, and obtained a PhD from the same university in 1993, advised by David Yudilevich. From 1993 to 1996 he was a Wellcome Trust Fellow in Steve Baldwin´s lab in Leeds, UK, returning in 1996 to the University of Chile as Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor. In 2000, he joined the Centro de Estudios Científicos in Valdivia, where he is now a principal investigator. How are the fluxes of matter, energy and information interwoven in cells and tissues? What is the relationship between metabolism and information in the brain? To tackle these kinds of question, his team is developing new molecular tools, capable of measuring metabolic parameters with high spatiotemporal resolution using light.

Biography

・Metabolic interactions between neurons and astrocytes, in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo

・Impact of Nutrition on brain metabolism

・Hypoxia-ischemia in the neonate

Neuroenergetics, or understanding how the brain produces energy to maintain its functions, has attracted much attention recently. From the improvement of cognitive performances through lifestyle changes (e.g. exercise and nutrition) to novel neuroprotective strategies against neurodegenerative diseases, it appears that neuroenergetics is central for several and diverse aspects of neurobiology. More particularly, studying the cellular links between neuronal activity and energy homeostasis is of utmost importance to elucidate the mechanisms of energy supply dictated by costly neuronal activity. It has also direct impact for neuroprotection

Biography

Clélia Allioux

I am a 3rd year PhD student in Neuroscience at Lyon University, France. My doctoral thesis focuses on monitoring neurochemical changes following traumatic brain injury. I have developed a severe traumatic brain injury model in rats, and characterized its neurological consequences using MRI, behavioral tests and microelectrode biosensor monitoring of energy metabolites glucose and lactate. My project also focuses on the neurochemical effects of cortical spreading depolarizations observed after severe traumatic brain injury. I am currently monitoring brain metabolism during these events with specific focus on glucose, lactate, glutamate and D-serine.

Biography

Carina Mallard

Carina Mallard (PhD) is Professor in Physiology and Head of the Department for Core facilities. Carina obtained her PhD in 1995 from the University of Auckland. After further training at the University of Melbourne, supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Foundation of Australia, she returned to Sweden on a Swedish Research Council Associate Professor Award and has been working at the Institute for Neuroscience and Physiology since 1999. Carina’s research interests include inflammation-induced perinatal brain injury. The overall goal of her research is to understand how different mechanisms lead to brain damage and to develop neuroprotective therapies. A particular focus is on how activation of the innate immune system, including toll-like receptor activation, affects the developing brain.

Biography

At UCSF I have served as the Director of Research, Neonatal Brain Disorders Center, since 2003. I have served on the NIH study sections and chaired Brain 2 and Brain 3 Committees for the AHA.

With my multi-disciplinary training in chemistry, biochemistry, pharmacology and physiology, for more than 25 years I have centered my research on the mechanisms of experimental stroke, including the role of cerebrovascular injury and neuroinflammation. In particular, my laboratory has focused on the mechanisms of perinatal stroke and, most recently, on childhood stroke. We were the first to establish age-appropriate focal stroke models in neonatal rats and mice to mimic perinatal stroke and in juvenile mice to mimic childhood stroke. We demonstrated a strikingly better preserved blood-brain barrier integrity after acute perinatal stroke compared to that after adult stroke. We discovered that microglial cells serve as endogenous neuroprotectants following perinatal stroke. We are currently investigating the contribution of microglial-extracellular matrix interactions in long-term injury in perinatal and childhood stroke.

Biography

Andre Obenaus, Ph.D.

Andre Obenaus, Ph.D. is currently Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine at University of California, Irvine (UCI). He is also Director of the Preclinical and Translational Imaging Center at UCI. His B.Sc. degree was obtained in Biophysics at La Sierra University (1984) and his Ph.D. was obtained from the University of British Columbia in Neurophysiology (1989). Postdoctoral research was completed at the University of California, Los Angeles understanding the anatomical and physiological basis underlying epilepsy.

Currently, his research interests include the use of novel magnetic resonance imaging approaches to non-invasively identify the evolution of neuropathology and how the brain responds to therapeutic interventions. Funded research investigates the influence of vascular alterations in brain trauma, non-invasive and predictive biomarkers relevant to febrile seizures and subsequent development of epilepsy, the evolution of white matter loss in adult and juvenile brain following neurotrauma, and novel therapeutic compounds for mitigating the effects of stroke, among others. Research into how the brain circuitry is modified by episodes of early life adversity are ongoing as part of the Conte Center @ UCI. Most recently, Dr. Obenaus is a member of the MODEL AD consortia that seeks to phenotype relevant rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease using novel MRI approaches. The use of automated computer vision techniques for analysis of biomedical data is a continuing research interest. He has extensive collaborations with national and international researchers to compliment and extend these research endeavors. His research has been and is currently funded by NIH, NSF, DOD, NASA and others. Further he has served as a grant reviewer for both national and international funding agencies. He has been invited as a speaker to national and international conferences and has been invited to speak at academic institutions worldwide.

He currently has over 165 peer-reviewed publications and 15 published book chapters on a range of research interests encompassing brain trauma, neonatal and adult stroke and epilepsy. He also serves on the editorial boards of 4 journals of international societies. He currently holds a number of patents on computer vision techniques for analysis of magnetic resonance images and one on combinatorial therapies for stroke.

SY04:

The Role of the Microbiome in Acute and Chronic Brain Disease (organized by Farida Sohrabji)

Biography

Halina Offner, Dr. Med.

Dr. Offner is a Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine at OHSU. She has a strong interest in translational research and a broad background in cellular immunology, with specific training and expertise in immune cells involved in the pathogenesis of CNS autoimmune diseases, stroke, multiple sclerosis, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), traumatic brain injury and vascular dementia. Her research includes effects of various immune-related treatments on outcomes of brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases. This includes specific work suggesting that 17β-estradiol (E2) treatment significantly alters the mucosal immune response. Her lab demonstrated that estrogen treatment by itself altered the gut microbiota compared to that of sham treated mice. These differences were magnified during EAE, where the estrogen treated mice were protected against the disease. These results point to a possible cross-talk between the sex hormones and the gut microbiota, which could promote neuroprotection. Dr. Offner holds editorial positions with several journals and is a member of an NIH Study Section.

Biography

Sylvia Daunert, PharmD, MS, PhD, Excma. Dra.

Sylvia Daunert, PharmD, MS, PhD, Excma. Dra. is the Lucille P. Markey Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Miller School of Medicine and the Director of the JT Macdonald Foundation Biomedical Nanotechnology Institute of the University of Miami. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Daunert was the Gill Eminent Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Daunert was also a Distinguished Professor of the College of Arts & Sciences and a University of Kentucky Research Professor. Among others, she is a Fulbright Scholar, an ELAM Fellow, and the recipient of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry van Slyke Research Award, the National Science Foundation-CAREER Award, the Cottrell-Scholars Award, the Lilly Analytical Faculty Award, the American Chemical Society A. F. Findeis Award, the National Science Foundation Special Creativity Award, the Bill Barfield Award from the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize, the Provost’s Award for Scholarly Achievements of the University of Miami, the 2015 WCA Cancer Researcher of the Year Award, the 2018 Florida Cancer Initiative “Sunshine Award” from the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Daunert’s research focuses on the development of bio-inspired nanotechnologies to solve biomedical and environmental problems. Her group genetically engineers living cells and proteins for environmental detection, molecular sensing, molecular diagnostics, point-of-care tests, biomarker identification, and drug delivery. Additionally, the research of the group focuses on the development of targeted and responsive drug delivery systems. Dr. Daunert’s work has been featured in over 250 publications, patents, and highlighted by the scientific media and popular press. She serves as editor and is a member of editorial and scientific advisory boards of journals, professional societies, as well as governmental and industrial organizations. Among other international awards and honors, Dr. Daunert is a member of the Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia of Spain and Academic D’Honor of the Reial Acadèmia de Farmàcia de Catalunya. In 2015, Dr. Daunert received the title of Ilustrísima Doctora and in 2016 the title of Excelentísima Doctora from the Kingdom of Spain. Finally, in 2018 Dr. Daunert was awarded a Professorship at the Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Peking Union Medical College.

Microbiota-immune cell interaction: Critical role of gut metabolites in neuroinflammation

Biography

Corinne Benakis, PhD

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia at the Klinikum der Universität München, Germany. My expertise lies at the crossroad of neurobiology and immunology, where I am mainly investigating how we can modulate the immune response to brain injury in order to improve the outcome of stroke. In particular, my research focuses on the critical role of the gut microbiota as immunomodulators in stroke disease.

Commensal gut bacteria have a profound impact on health and diseases. We and others have shown that intestinal microbiota influences stroke pathophysiology by modulating the peripheral immune system (Benakis et al. Nat Med 2016; Singh et al. J Neurosci 2016). Moreover, the gut microbiota produces several immunoactive metabolites which may impact on recovery from stroke.

In this session, I will summarize the current findings on the molecular pathomechanisms of the microbiota-brain interaction focusing on the metabolites and immune polarization in the context of acute brain injuries. We will examine the impact of these recent insights on generating a novel concept of a bi-directional communication along the “brain-gut-microbiome-immune” axis in stroke.

Reproductive senescence and brain injury remodel the gut microbiome and modulate the effects of estrogen treatment in female rats

Biography

Farida Sohrabji

Farida Sohrabji is the Joseph Shelton Professor of Neuroscience and Associate Department Chair of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics. She obtained a joint doctoral degree in Neurobiology & Biopsychology from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, and completed her post-doctoral training at Columbia University, New York. She joined the faculty of Texas A&M College of Medicine in 1998.
Dr. Sohrabji directs a federally-funded research program that focuses on sex and age differences in stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (Stroke Council) and a member of the inaugural class of Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellows. Dr. Sohrabji is actively involved in the training of graduate and medical students and mentorship of junior faculty. She is the founder and Director of the Women’s Health in Neuroscience Program at the Texas A&M College of Medicine, and a strong advocate for the inclusion of gender/sex differences in biomedical research.

Biography

Dr. Louis-Philippe Bernier

As a research associate at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, I work with Dr Brian MacVicar on the role of pericytes in stroke recovery. As a pool of progenitor cells, pericytes in the brain proliferate and reprogram their function following injury to provide trophic support for cerebrovascular regeneration. Beyond the investigation of pericytes, I also study microglial physiology and the ability of microglia to adapt during metabolic challenges such as stroke.

Biography

Robert Hill

Robert received his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut and postdoctoral training at Yale School of Medicine. He joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth in July 2018 as an assistant professor. His lab studies multicellular interactions in the brain using high-resolution intravital optical imaging.

Biography

Kassandra Kisler

Dr. Kassandra Kisler received her PhD in applied physics from Cornell University where she used a combination of microscopy and electrophysiology techniques to study cell biology. She is currently a research associate in Dr. Berislav Zlokovic's lab at the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the University of Southern California where she uses advanced imaging techniques to study vascular functionality in the living brain. Her interests lie in understanding the contribution of microvascular dysfunction to dementia, and developing therapeutic and preventative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Biography

Anusha Mishra, Ph.D.

Anusha Mishra is interested in the physiological and pathological interactions between neurons, astrocytes and the cerebral microvasculature, with a focus on neurovascular coupling. Her past work investigated the role of astrocytes in mediating neurovascular coupling in the retina and the brain. Specifically, her work has identified a mechanism that produces a deficit in retinal neurovascular coupling in diabetic animals, demonstrated that astrocytes regulate capillary diameter in the cerebral cortex, and showed that ischemia induces capillary constriction, which might underlie the no-reflow phenomenon following stroke. Her laboratory is now investigating the relationship between reactive astrocytes and neurovascular impairment after ischemic stroke and in models of mixed etiology dementia.

Do pericytes proliferate and differentiate into microglia-like cells after ischemic stroke?

Biography

Yao Yao

Dr. Yao received his PhD at Stony Brook University in 2011. He then continued for a postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Yao received his first tenure-track Assistant Professor position at the University of Minnesota in 2015. He moved to the University of Georgia as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2017. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Georgia.

Biography

Peter Herscovitch

Peter Herscovitch is Director of the Positron Emission Tomography Department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD, USA. He earned a B.Eng. in electrical engineering, followed by a medical degree and neurology residency at McGill University, Montreal, and a research fellowship in PET at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. His research interests include the development of methods to study cerebral blood flow, metabolism and neuroreceptor systems with PET, and their application to clinical research in neuropsychiatric disease. He has authored or co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and chapters, and has served on review committees for the NIH, research foundations, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He was president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) in 2014-15 and received its Kuhl-Lassen Award for Brain Imaging. He has been a member of the ISCBFM since 1981. He served as a member of the Society’s Board of Directors, and on program committees for BRAIN/BRAINPET meetings. He was Society treasurer from 2008 to 2013 and president in 2015-17. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and SNMMI.

Biography

Bojana Stefanovic

Dr. Stefanovic is a senior scientist in Physical Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute, and an associate professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Stefanovic’s research focuses on the development of new methods for quantitative in vivo imaging of brain function. Her research interests include the development and application of in vivo high field functional MRI, two-photon fluorescence microscopy, and extracellular recordings for tracking functional deficits in cellular components of the neurovascular unit over the course of neurodegeneration in transgenic models of Alzheimer’s Disease and during chronic stage of recovery in rodent models of focal ischemia and traumatic brain injury.

Biography

Johannes Boltze

Dr. Boltze studied both human medicine and neurobiology at the University of Leipzig, Germany, from which he graduated in 2008 (MD) and 2012 (PhD, both summa cum laude). Dr. Boltze started his career as a research group leader at Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest non-profit society for translational and applied research. In 2010, he was appointed as a Fraunhofer department head, and received a full professorship from the University of Luebeck, Germany, in 2015. Dr. Boltze’s main research interests comprise cell-based therapeutic approaches, neuroprotection and translational animal modelling in stroke. He has worked with a number of comorbid rodent models mimicking the situation of human stroke patients, and has developed an ovine model of focal cerebral ischemia. He has authored more than 115 peer-reviewed publications and 6 book chapters, and holds 6 patents. In 2018, Dr. Boltze accepted an offer for the position as Full Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. He is also the president of the International Symposium on Neuroprotection & Neurorepair (ISN&N), a biannual basic and translational neuroscience and BRAIN partner meeting.

Biography

Koji Abe, MD, PhD

Dr. Koji Abe is 62 years old man, and is currently Professor and Chairman of Neurology at Okayama University Medical School in Japan. He graduated Tohoku University School of Medicine (M.D.), and then got Ph.D. title from Tohoku University under direction of Professor Kyuya Kogure. Professor Koji Abe has been publishing more than 600 papers on cerebral blood flow and metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases. His research interests cover many important fields of neurology especially in the mechanism of ischemic brain damage, gene and stem cell therapy, neuroprotection, and neuroimaging. He is the past president of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (CBFM), and organized World CBFM meeting in Osaka in 2007 and Japan-Asia CBFM meeting Okayama city in 2014. He is the founding Presidents of both Vas-Cog Japan and Vas-Cog Asia societies. He is also going to organize Japan Neurological Meeting in 2020, which is the world largest neurology meeting with more than 7,000 neurologists joining.
Check website of Vas-Cog Asia. http://www.cc.okayama-u.ac.jp/~vascogasia/

Biography

Alan Evans

Alan Evans is James McGill Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at McGill. His research covers multi-modal brain imaging and structural network modeling (www.mcin.ca). He is co-Director of the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health, using high-performance computing to integrate imaging, behavior, genetics data in research into neurodegeneration and neurodevelopment. He has 632 peer-reviewed papers (ISI h-index=128 ; Google Scholar h-index=185). In 2014, he received the Vezina Prize for Québec Neuroradiology, the national Margolese Human Brain Disorders Prize and was a Highly Cited Scientist (top 1%) for Neuroscience and Behavior. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and 2017 Chair of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. In 2016, he received the Wilder Penfield Prix du Québec. In 2017, he was awarded the Senate of Canada 150 Medal, ranked #6 in its list of ten most influential brain scientists of the modern era by Science magazine and inducted as a Fellow of the College of Academic Health Sciences. In 2018, he was awarded the Heinz Lehmann Prize for services to Neuropsychopharmacology, the Victor Dadaleh Chair in Neurosciences and the Club de Recheches Clinique du Québec Mentorship Prize. He is currently Scientific Director of McGill’s $84M CFREF project “Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives” and Scientific Director of the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform.

Biography

Peter Herman MD, PhD

Peter Herman MD, PhD (1969) has got his medical doctor degree in 1994 and his doctoral degree in 2002 at Semmelweis Univeristy, Budapest, Hungary. He worked in the Institute of Human Physiology and Clinical Experimental Research Institute under the mentorship of Andras Eke. He became assistant professor in 2006. From 2002 he worked with Fahmeed Hyder at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven CT, as postdoctoral associate then from 2006 as associate research scientist. He had joint affiliations with the two institutes until 2008, and then worked only in the Magnetic Resonance Research Center – Department of Radiology, Yale University. His research interests are the non-linear (fractal) dynamics of cerebral circulation, the neurohemodynamic and neurometabolic couplings in the brain in rest and during function, and the state dependent changes in brain metabolism. He has 59 papers (citation ~2400, h-index=25) in the field, including:

Human brain energy map of signaling and non-signaling processes computed on the basis of cellular staining

Biography

Yuguo Yu, Ph.D.

Professor in Computational Neuroscience at Fudan University, School of Life Sciences. Dr. Yu obtained Ph.D (2001) in Physics at Nanjing University. He was trained in Computational/Behavior Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University as a Postdoct from 2001 to 2004; and Associate Research Scientist at Department of Neuroscience at Yale University (2010-2011). He was a recipient of the Shanghai Eastern Scholar Professorship (2013) and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in high profile journals that include Nature, Neuron, PNAS, J.Neurosci etc. His research interests include cellular mechanisms of energy efficient cortical spiking dynamics and information processing, synaptic mechanism of learning and information storage, brain energetics, large scale of cortical network modeling, and cognitive computation.

Biography

Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD.

Dr. Lee is Professor of Neurology, Radiology, and Biomedical Engineering at Washington University School of Medicine; Director of the Cerebrovascular Disease Section in the Department of Neurology; and Co-Director of the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University. He has authored over 160 research articles, chapters, reviews and editorials on stroke and Alzheimer’s Disease, and the interface of these two diseases of the elderly. His research spans the translational spectrum from cell and animal models of neurological diseases to clinical studies involving genetics and multimodal neuroimaging. Dr. Lee has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2000. He graduate from Yale College with a degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, then attended Weill Cornell Medical College, earning an MD and PhD in neuroscience. After completing residency training at the University of Pennsylvania, he completed a neurovascular fellowship at Washington University, where he subsequently joined the faculty in the Department of Neurology.

Alzheimer's disease and diabetes: the metabolic interplay of two disparate diseases

Biography

Shannon L. Macauley

Shannon L. Macauley, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She is also a member of the Sticht Center on Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention, Center for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, and Center for Precision Medicine. The main focus of Dr. Macauley’s work is to understand diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and how secondary mechanisms, such altered CNS metabolism, impact neuronal health and function. Her work is focused in two main areas: 1) the interplay between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and type-2-diabetes (T2D) and 2) the understanding and treatment of lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). As it relates to the relationship between AD and T2D, Dr. Macauley’s lab uses mouse models to understand how metabolic perturbations, either systemically or within the brain, affect the progression of AD-related pathology, such as the production, clearance, and aggregation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) or tau. She uses a variety of methods, including glucose clamps, in vivo microdialysis, biosesnors, and neuroimaging techniques to study the acute effects of metabolic challenges on Aβ and tau dynamics within the brain’s interstitial fluid (ISF) as well as chronic studies to investigate what metabolic factors impact the progression of AD-related pathology and functional deficits. Ultimately, the goal is to leverage these findings as therapeutic targets for treating neurodegenerative disorders.

Biography

Manu S. Goyal, M.D., M.Sc.

Manu Goyal is an Assistant Professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Neuroscience at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) of the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM). Dr. Goyal has clinical expertise in stroke imaging and research expertise in applying advanced data science and machine learning techniques to positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. He shares a laboratory with Dr. Andrei Vlassenko and Professor Marcus Raichle where they are applying metabolic PET and functional MRI to study brain aging and Alzheimer's Disease, with the primary goal of understanding how differences in brain metabolism throughout life might lead to an increased risk and/or resilience to neurodegeneration.

SY09:

Latest Aspects of Immunology in Stroke (organized by Hiroyuki Kinouchi)

Biography

Mathias Gelderblom

Mathias Gelderblom obtained his M.D. from the Universitaet Kiel, Germany. As a graduate student he was trained in the laboratory of Professor Steven Waxman at the Yale School of Medicine, USA. Dr. Gelderblom then started his residency in Neurology at the University Hospital Hamburg Eppendorf, Germany. Mathias Gelderblom is currently employed as Clinician Scientist and Clinical Attending at the Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Dr. Gelderblom´s major research interest is to understand the impact of the immune system on the short- and long-term recovery of the ischemic brain with a focus on the innate immune system.

Biography

Arthur Liesz

Arthur Liesz is a clinician-scientist who has received his training in neurology at the University of Heidelberg Medical Center, in addition he was trained in experimental immunology at the German Cancer Research Institute (DKFZ). His research interest is on immunological aspects of acute brain injury, working on the topic of brain-immune interaction after acute brain injuries for more than a decade. The research encompasses both sides of brain-immune interaction after stroke: the secondary neuroinflammatory reaction to brain damage and the impact of brain injury on the peripheral immune homeostasis. His work provided the first description on the key role of regulatory T cells in limiting an overshooting immune reaction after acute brain injury (Liesz et al., Nature Medicine, 2009). His laboratory performed preclinical studies (e.g. Liesz et al., Brain, 2011) which have in the meanwhile led to a recently completed clinical Phase II study (ACTION trial). More recently, Dr. Liesz’ lab focuses on the contribution of the gut microbiota to prime the post-ischemic neuroinflammatory response and has descriped for the first time a bi-directional link between the brain and gut microbiota in acute brain ischemia (e.g. Singh et al., J Neuroscience, 2016). Dr. Liesz is currently heading the "Laboratory of Stroke-Immunology" at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (http://isd.klinikum.uni-muenchen.de) in Munich, Germany.

Biography

Björn Bauer, PhD, University of Kentucky

Björn Bauer, PhD is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy. He received a BS in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences/Pharmacology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Bauer was Postdoctoral Fellow at the NIH/NIEHS in Research Triangle Park, NC. Dr. Bauer was Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and in 2014 joined the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. Dr. Bauer’s research is focused on the regulation of blood-brain barrier function in brain disorders, specifically epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and brain cancer. Dr. Bauer’s research is funded by several NIH grants.

Nitric oxide synthase is a potential target for treating the neurological sequelae of repetitive blast injury

Biography

Aric Logsdon

Dr. Aric F. Logsdon is a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of William A. Banks. Aric is currently supported by a T32 training grant affiliated with the University of Washington Department of Medicine. Dr. Logsdon’s research interests focus on mechanisms of neurovascular unit regeneration following traumatic brain injury. On this and other topics, Dr. Logsdon has published over 35 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is actively applying for an NIH career development award.

Biography

Akihiko Urayama

Dr. Urayama is a blood-brain barrier scientist by training who utilizes this expertise to explore potential therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and lysosomal storage diseases. My research expertise in both cerebral vascular biology and neurodegenerative diseases evoked by metabolic failure in the brain has helped me develop an independent research laboratory that has a focus on blood-brain barrier disruption. A major focus of my research program over the past few years has been investigating how to manipulate the brain environment through changes in the periphery (blood, bone marrow) in which the BBB plays a major role.

SY11:

Brain and Immunity in Health and Disease (organized by Zsuzsanna Fabry)

Biography

Etty (Tika) Benveniste, Ph.D.

Dr. Benveniste is the Senior Vice Dean for Basic Sciences at the UAB School of Medicine (SOM). She was the Founding Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology (2012-2015), and served as Chair of the Department of Cell Biology (2000-2011). Benveniste also holds the Charlene A. Jones Endowed Chair in Neuroimmunology.

During her postdoctoral studies, in the Department of Neurology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Benveniste initiated research on elucidating the mechanisms by which cells of the immune system and the central nervous system communicate and influence functionality, cytokine/chemokine production by glial cells, the effects of cytokines/chemokines on glial cell function, and the ability of glial cells to function as immune effector cells in the brain. This research continues to date. These studies have implications for autoimmune/neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease, and cancers such as brain tumors.

Dr. Benveniste’s research is supported by two NIH RO1s, grants from the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and is a Project Leader on the Alabama Udall Center Award.

Benveniste has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals including The Journal of Immunology, Journal of Neuroscience, and Journal of Biological Chemistry and is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuro-Virology and Journal of Neuroinflammation. She was elected in 2009 as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). With 32 years of peer-review panel experience, Benveniste continues as a reviewer for panels such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, NIH Neurological Science and Disorders Committee C, and the NIH Directors Transformative Research Award Committee.

Biography

Costantino Iadecola

Costantino Iadecola, M.D. is the Director and Chair of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine. A pioneer in establishing the concept of neurovascular unit, Dr. Iadecola has championed the involvement of neurovascular dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases, and the role of inflammation, innate immunity and the microbiome in ischemic brain injury. He has published over 340 papers in peer-reviewed journals and plays a leadership role in research organizations and funding agencies in the US and abroad. Dr. Iadecola has received the McHenry Award from the American Academy of Neurology, two Jacob Javits Awards from the National Institutes of Health, the Willis Award - the highest honor in stroke research bestowed by the American Heart Association (AHA), the Zenith Fellow Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Excellence Award in Hypertension Research (Novartis) from the Hypertension Council of the AHA, In 2015, he was elected to the Association of American Physicians. In 2018, Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science) listed Dr. Iadecola as one of world’s “Highly Cited Researchers” for ranking in the top one percent of the most-cited authors in the field of neuroscience and behavioral sciences (2006-2016).

Biography

Professor Michal Schwartz Biosketch

Schwartz is a Professor of Neuroimmunology, incumbent of The Maurice and Ilse Katz Professorial Chair in Neuroimmunology, at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. Schwartz was the elected president of the International Society of for Neuroimmunology (2016-2018). Schwartz received her BSc degree, cum laude, from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, and her PhD in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute. Received a prize for excellence in her PhD. She carried her postdoc work in Neuroscience. Upon establishing her own laboratory, she combined her areas of interest, the immune system and the brain. Her research initiated a new field, investigating how the immune system strengthens the healthy mind and helps heal the damaged brain. Her insights had significant impact, reflected in her publications in leading journals and citation factor (105, Google Scholar). She was the world pioneer suggesting that both monocytes and T cells are needed for repair of injured CNS tissues. She coined the concept of “protective autoimmunity”, as a physiological response that protects the brain. She identified the brain’s choroid plexus epithelium, as an entry gate for leukocytes, needed for brain homeostasis and repair. This led to her over the last 5 years to discover that brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases are associated with dysfunction of this interface, and that targeting that systemic immune system can combat Alzheimer’s disease. Schwartz has mentored numerous graduated students many of them are already holding leadership in Neuroimmunology. She has received a number of prestigious national and international awards for her outstanding achievements, including lately the Blumberg Prize for excellence in medical science, the 2017 Rappaport Prize for Excellence in the Field of Biomedical Research (awarded to an established Israeli biomedical researcher). In 2016 her book: “NEUROIMMUNITY: How Brain Science Will Revolutionize the Way We Live and Age”, by MICHAL SCHWARTZ with Anat London, Yale University Press, received Accolade from the annual PROSE Awards. Schwartz was profiled by Britannica Book of the year 2016, covering selected individuals and events that impacted the course of human history. She selected as the most influential woman of the year, 2017, by Lady Globes. She was among the recipients of the Global Leader of Innovation Award, iNNOVEX2018, and received honorary doctorate from the IDC college, Interdisciplinary Center. Lately, she was chosen as the Outstanding Mentor of the Year (2019) by the Israeli Brain Research Association.

Biography

David Brown

David Brown graduated in Medicine from University of NSW in 1989. He trained in clinical immunology and immunopathology and was awarded an FRACP and FRCPA in 2000. In 2003 he completed a PhD research degree after which he undertook further post-doctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, USA in neuroanatomy and neuroinflammation. He returned to Australia in 2006 and has headed his research group investigating CNS immunoregulation and injury at both basic research and clinical levels. He is Director of Immunopathology at Pathology West, ICPMR and Heads the Laboratory of Neuroinflammation at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research where he continues his research into CNS immunoregulation, injury and the immune contribution to psychiatric disorders. He is past president of Neuroimmunology Australia and is organizing the International Society for Neuroimmunology Congress in Brisbane in 2018. He also a past member of the board of The International Society of Neuroimmunology.